The Nigerian equity market appears to be feeling the heat as investors express bearish sentiments on stocks, over the news of the suspension of Walter Onnoghe, Chief Justice of the federation by president Mohammadu Buhari .
As at 10.11 am, on trading session, Monday, the Nigerian stock market was trading on negative note, with the All Share Index down 0.55 percent.
The NSE-30 index was down 0.72 percent with the banking index turning in a negative return at 1.87 percent.
The share price of Nigerian big banks felt the shock more as four out of the five tier 1 banks opened on a negative note.
Zenith bank’s share price was down 3.26 percent, alongside GTB, United Bank for Africa and Access bank which were all down 1.01 percent, $.55 percent, 3.08 percent respectively.
Stocks of Nigerian tier 2 lender, Sterling bank was also down by 7.1 percent
Similarly, the Insurance and the Consumer goods sector were not left out from the hit as both index was down0.39 percent and 0.01 percent respectively.
President Mohammadu Buhari, on Friday suspended the Chief Justice of the federation, Walter Onnoghe, after the presidency said it received an ex parte order from the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) giving it the go ahead for the replacement of the CJN on issues bothering on false declaration of asset and traces of suspicious transactions running into millions of dollars to the CJN’s personal accounts.
President Buhari on Friday swore in Ibrahim Tanko as the new Chief Justice of the federation after suspending Walter onnoghen
The move by the Nigerian president has raised criticism from both domestic and international communities with the US, UK and the EU independently releasing a statement telling the presidency to follow constitutional procedures in handling the situation especially given the fact that the 2019 elections is only three weeks away.
The presidency however issues a statement warning international communities to stop “meddling with the country’s affair”.
